{"id":110662,"date":"2025-12-28T04:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T04:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/110662\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T04:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T04:54:18","slug":"lakers-recalibrate-after-austin-reaves-injury-3-game-losing-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/110662\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers ‘recalibrate’ after Austin Reaves injury, 3-game losing streak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After the Lakers<\/a>\u2019 third straight loss Thursday, JJ Redick<\/a> promised things would get \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d The second-year coach, frustrated after the team delivered a lump of coal in a Christmas Day blowout<\/a> by the Houston Rockets, said he couldn\u2019t stand to rewatch the same tired story. Leaning his elbow on the table at his postgame news conference, Redick called out players who don\u2019t give enough effort on defense or play hard. <\/p>\n

Two days later he stood in front of reporters with a different tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecalibration,\u201d Redick said calmly of the message he delivered during Saturday\u2019s team meeting. \u201cReconnection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redick has cooled, but the Lakers still are under fire. Not only are they trying to snap a season-high three-game losing streak at home Sunday against the Sacramento Kings (6:30 p.m.), but also the Lakers (19-10) still are looking for their first home win in December and must navigate this defining moment without guard Austin Reaves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reaves was diagnosed with a grade 2 strain in his left calf Friday and will be reevaluated in four weeks. The latest setback comes less than two weeks after he was sidelined because of a \u201cmild\u201d strain in the same calf that kept him out for three games. <\/p>\n

Reaves is averaging career highs in points (26.6), assists (6.3) and rebounds (5.2) and his ascent from undrafted rookie to potential first-time All-Star was one of the team\u2019s feel-good stories of the season. Reaves scored a career-high 51 points against Sacramento in October, rescuing the Lakers in a game without LeBron James<\/a> or Luka Doncic<\/a> and showing Reaves\u2019 potential in a starring role.<\/p>\n

Now without their second-leading scorer, the Lakers are looking for their supporting cast to step up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need our guys to be stars in their roles,\u201d Redick said. \u201cCertainly from a top-end talent standpoint, it diminishes that. But it doesn\u2019t change the non-negotiables or how we\u2019re trying to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing the last three games by an average of 20.7 points per game, the Lakers needed to get reacquainted with their non-negotiables during Saturday\u2019s meeting. The session was uncomfortable in the way confronting truth can be uncomfortable, Redick said. It wasn\u2019t just coaches lecturing, but also players speaking up. <\/p>\n

The top priority was creating more clarity, Redick said. The team needed to get back to building its defensive fundamentals after so many lineup changes because of injuries. The Lakers have used 16 different starting lineups in 29 games and have to readjust their rotation again in Reaves\u2019 absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogetherness is going to have to be emphasized to where it looks like an exaggeration,\u201d center Deandre Ayton said, \u201cwhere it becomes a habit. And that\u2019s what winners do. And it\u2019s pretty easy for this team. It\u2019s just that there\u2019s always a different group out there and we\u2019re going to get it for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forward Rui Hachimura said coaches reminded players of the team\u2019s three pillars that again were displayed on a screen in the practice gym Saturday \u2014 championship habits, championship communication, championship shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just talk about everybody, players, coaches, we just gotta kind of tighten up,\u201d Hachimura said. \u201cWe had a good stretch in the beginning and now we kind of, I don\u2019t know, we relaxed or we kind of got tired of winning, you know, but we just stopped doing what we\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 29th in the NBA in defensive rating in the last 15 games, giving up 122.2 points per 100 possessions. It\u2019s a significant drop from their rating of 113.7 in the first 14 games in which they went 10-4.<\/p>\n

Since James returned from, the Lakers\u2019 preferred starting lineup \u2014 Doncic, Reaves, James, Ayton and Hachimura \u2014 has a net rating of minus-19.9 in seven games.<\/p>\n

Offensively the Lakers have lacked organization since James came back, Redick acknowledged. James declined to speak to reporters after practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many random possessions,\u201d Redick said. \u201cThat\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Lakers\u2019 third straight loss Thursday, JJ Redick promised things would get \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d The second-year coach, frustrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[59298,423,59300,1419,48,52,51,1415,13505,47,50,49,7551,9442,1417,2190,6707,595,59297,427,59299],"class_list":{"0":"post-110662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-austin-reaves-injury","9":"tag-game","10":"tag-habit","11":"tag-jj-redick","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-lakers","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-luka-doncic","21":"tag-player","22":"tag-point","23":"tag-reaves","24":"tag-sacramento-king","25":"tag-saturday","26":"tag-second-year-coach","27":"tag-team","28":"tag-team-meeting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}